The World Health Organization recently announced the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. Meanwhile, Toward Zero Deaths is both a federal and state initiative aimed at changing highway safety culture in the U.S. TZD includes safer infrastructure, safer vehicles and safer road users. Several authors of the TZD white paper, Safer Vulnerable Road Users: Pedestrians, Bicyclists, Motorcyclists, and Older Users, share their findings and recommendations.

APBP and America Walks invite panelists and participants to ask tough questions. Does TZD’s measurement protocol (number of crashes) tell the real safety story of current and future bicyclists and pedestrians? Is exposure a better barometer for the most vulnerable transportation modes? Is the change in the road user hierarchy recommended in the International Scan report a call to action for TZD? The session includes a frank discussion of how accessible signals and the design of curb ramps can reduce pedestrian-motorist conflicts and pedestrian deaths and injuries, and the type of facilities that would increase the number and safety of bicyclists. The session concludes with proposed consensus statements that bike-ped professionals and organizations can use to engage in the national and international TZD dialogue.

The whitepaper discussion sets the stage for the week’s exploration of Complete Streets, which the authors say "should be a standard for all new roads and for all roadway reconstruction projects. Without having a requirement for Complete Streets Policies, some agencies are likely to continue to give a lower priority to the needs of pedestrians in the roadway and street environment.”